Entertainment

'Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel' Is More Expansion Than Full Game

Borderlands is a franchise built on fan love. The genre-bending shooter/RPG hybrid cemented itself as something special after 2012's Borderlands 2, with a long stream of additional downloadable content and new characters to satisfy players.

Overall, all that stuff was great, but it was just building upon that game. The biggest problem with Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, out this week, is it feels like a very large expansion for Borderlands 2, instead of a stand-alone game with new ideas.

Honestly, lots of players who just want more Borderlands may be totally thrilled with that whole concept. But if you want to see game studios surprise and delight with new ideas or mechanics, The Pre-Sequel may be lacking.

Jack is a main character in 'Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel,' before he becomes a huge jerk.

Image: 2K Games

Back to Jack

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, as its cheeky title says, fits snugly in between the first and second games of the series. Since the second game revolved around the story of a genuinely interesting villain, Handsome Jack, this game provides his origin story. Our four playable heroes meet a younger Jack, and learn that he isn't such a bad guy. He's more of a middle-manager type stuck fighting corporate politics and space pirate takeover on the moon base circling around Pandora, the game's main planet.

The game's plot revolves around that Hyperion space station being overrun with a competing group of outlaws, who end up trying to use its powerful laser to blow up the moon. Your goal is to help Jack regain control of the space station, and build a robotic army to kick off the offending party. Most of the dirty work takes place on the low-gravity, zero-atmosphere moon, which provides the game's new mechanics.

Borderlands has always shined thanks to its clever, subversive writing, and generally this game is no different. The times when you hear characters talk are the most enjoyable, especially as you see a lot of franchise-favorite characters. Some of the inclusions feel a little like fan service to me, as if this whole middle chapter was written with a few too many winks and nods to Borderlands lovers.

Bar owner Moxxi, and her whole establishment, are back, too.

Image: 2K Games

Some of the new characters are quite memorable though. This was especially true thanks to the heavy Australian and British influences in this game; since The Pre-Sequel was mostly developed by 2K Australia with guidance by Gearbox, there are a ridiculous amount of charming Aussie accents. It's enough to make you just assume the moon is Pandora's parallel to an 18th century British penal colony.

The cleverness peters out when it comes to the variety of game mission presented to players. While previous titles injected a lot of humor into your tasks, especially the side quests, many of The Pre-Sequel's become basic: go here, press button, grab thing. Many missions made you backtrack significantly; instead of adding a challenge creatively, they'd just invent a lot of small roadblocks to lengthen play time. Even missions where you are literally constructing a giant, deadly robot are reduced to a series: run around, kill enemies, find button, hit button, return to starting zone, repeat. Games should never feel like chores.

To the game's credit, I feel like many of the missions got a little more heady and interesting beyond the halfway mark. I felt suddenly in a groove of killing, moving forward, completing objectives. Once you get to a certain level, it began feeling like the well-oiled machine of Borderlands, with a couple of new tricks.

Image: 2K Games

One big moon bounce

The main mechanical change to Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel hinges on the moon's low gravity. You're given an O2 kit to breathe in areas without atmosphere, with the added bonus that you can shoot out excess oxygen for an extra super jump. This means the addition to some creative platforming you'd never expect from a Borderlands title, which can be pretty fun.

Your oxygen levels require constant monitoring, and the game will start punishing you if it runs out. I'd originally played very cautious, always keeping an O2 source in sight during long treks. But I found the game was very forgiving, and it took a long time between when your oxygen was out and you actually died, almost two minutes.

Other new elements can be found from the original classes of hero the game introduces. I focused mostly on the Lawbringer, a woman who could fire quickly and accurately and received a lot of bonuses for shooting well. Others include the Enforcer, a man who becomes more and more machine over time as he modifies himself with robotic parts, and the Gladiator, a Captain America-style character who can catch bullets on her shield and fling them back out. There's also a very random Claptrap, a fan favorite robot that until now has existed as comic relief, and his in-game skills reflect that fact.

What's not new is basically everything else. The mechanics are time-worn for Borderlands players, and will fit like a very familiar glove. That includes all the good stuff, like how responsive and unique gun feels, but also the bad, like the weird glitches from previous games. Having to still pick up each shiny object dropped by an a baddy individually is a pain, especially if the auto-collect fails, which seems to happen a lot.

The last trip to Pandora

If you're a die-hard Borderlands fan, one who has absorbed all the DLC and knows everything about the world's minutiae, then The Pre-Sequel is a must get. And considering the success of Borderlands 2 — 8.5 million copies sold and eight episodes of downloadable content — there's probably a lot of people that fit that description. The game neatly ties in pieces of that world, and not only gives an interesting origin story to Handsome Jack, but lots of other characters as well.

But if you're looking for a new or creative challenge, the game falters. It feels more like a palette swap of its successful predecessor. The fact it's only on previous-gen consoles and PC lends to the fact the developers wanted this last game out the door before creating a whole new, next-gen take on the franchise. Despite traveling to a whole new world, we see many of Borderlands same old tricks in The Pre-Sequel.

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is out Oct. 14 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 4 and PC for $59.99.

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel

The Good

Great story for series fans • Interesting new classes • A new world to explore

The Bad

Doesn't deviate from original games much • Previous-generation only;

The Bottom Line

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is a unique installment in the series, but doesn't bring enough new ideas to the table.

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel was reviewed on PC via a code provided by 2K Games.

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